Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One Review

Brave the galaxy together.

The Ratchet & Clank series is one rarely enjoyed with friends. With all that platforming, gunplay, and space travel to consider, multiplayer only shows up on occasion. With Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One, the developers at Insomniac tackled cooperative Ratchet multiplayer for the first time. This massive change adds a phenomenal new flavor to an old recipe, one that overpowers any sacrifices Insomniac made to depart so drastically from the familiar. If you've begged the vast ether for something new from a classic PlayStation franchise, you finally got it. And we lucked-out, because All 4 One succeeds far more than it stumbles.

Things start off with Ratchet and Clank lamenting their heroic lifestyle. Both wish for a more relaxed existence away from the death-defying stunts of their youth. But when their foil Dr. Nefarious shows up, the plot takes an unusual turn. Ratchet, Clank, Qwark, and Dr. Nefarious himself come face-to-face with a mysterious new threat, and soon they find themselves trapped on an alien world filled with some of the galaxy's most savage predators. They say desperate times call for desperate measures, so the three heroes (and villain) team up to save the universe.

Like the Ratchet & Clank games before it, All 4 One fuses a number of gaming traditions together and strings everything along with a comedic story. Throughout your quest, you'll leap across dangerous ravines, battle robo-minions, and solve puzzles. This time, however, you can do it all with up to three other friends, both online and locally.

Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One shines when its multiplayer components bubble to the surface. Some puzzles demand specific cooperation from the players, and some enemies can only be defeated with a united effort. These moments stand out and remind me that All 4 One is best experienced with a friend at your side.

This cooperative design explodes to the forefront during the optional side puzzles, which unlock based on the number of adorable critters you rescue throughout the story. These Portal-esque sequences require precise coordination and reward you with RYNO parts (the ultimate weapon in the franchise). I only wish more of these came packed into the experience, because they provided some of the most satisfying gameplay in the whole package.

Outside of these puzzles, the usual Ratchet traditions fuelled most of my addictive tendencies. Collecting bolts still drives me to destroy every crate and search around every corner. Finding bolts enables you to upgrade your arsenal of creative (and occasionally absurd) weapons, and it dictates the subtle, competitive element behind All 4 One.

During your quest, you'll be competing just as much as cooperating with your friends. Statistics such as bolts collected and enemies destroyed factor into each player's performance. At each checkpoint, you'll be graded based on these statistics and rewarded with additional bolts.

Going toe-to-toe with your best buddies provides its own sense of excitement, but the real fun of Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One comes from true cooperative play. Use the same weapon on the same target as your buddy and you'll build up an overload attack. These attacks decimate your enemies and dominate both screen and speakers with strong, satisfying cues. There's nothing quite as delicious as launching a series of missiles at your enemy with support from a friend and watching the results in slow-motion. Beautiful chaos, indeed.

Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One Screenshots

Even though All 4 One provides four-player support from start to finish, I found my two-player sessions most enjoyable. When four people fill the screen with swarms of bullets and bombs, it's almost impossible to keep track of the mayhem. Two-player action, however, keeps the confusion to a minimum but retains the satisfaction of playing with a friend. Those of you that have a friend interested in playing All 4 One all the way through will likely have the best experience, especially if you're sharing a couch. And you'll have fewer people to compete with for bolts!

If you happen to play Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One solo, fear not: the AI-powered Clank keeps up well through thick and thin, and even helps solve puzzles with very little frustration. If I could hug this digital companion, I would.

Of course, adding in multiplayer to a formula optimized for single-player inevitably leads to a few hiccups, which you'll find in All 4 One. In order to facilitate four-player simultaneous co-op, Insomniac locked the camera into fixed positions, which suffocates compared to A Crack in Time. There's much less exploration here and even the combat loses some of the luster it had in Ratchet's previous adventure.

The lock-on system also aggravates from time-to-time, as there's no easy way to reset your weapon lock to match targets with your allies. Most of the time this isn't an issue, but a few frantic battles left my blood pressure running high as opposed to a smile on my face.

Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time represents the pinnacle of the Ratchet & Clank series, so All 4 One feels like a step backwards. But the fun multiplayer components and laugh-out-loud story make Ratchet and Clank's latest journey a worthy one, and bring a distinct new experience to the franchise. I loved collecting bolts and solving puzzles with a friend and on my own, even if the visuals and combat aren't quite as sharp as they used to be.

For those of you desperate for another Ratchet & Clank, All 4 One earns its keep with style. And honestly, I'd pay just for the water cooler scene -- I almost felt bad laughing so hard.